


So Much To Come Home To

by PanicMoon15



Series: Home is Where Your Heart is Set in Stone [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Auntie Nat - Freeform, Cooper needs a hug, Cute, Daddy and Auntie Nat are there, Family, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 16:49:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4713260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanicMoon15/pseuds/PanicMoon15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cooper is concerned that his Dad and Auntie Nat will go off to save the world, and that one day they won't come home. What makes it worse, is that Auntie Nat has been gone for over a month and he misses her so much, and he just wants her safe and at home. </p><p>To make him feel better Clint takes Cooper to visit his aunt, and together, they have a heart to heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Much To Come Home To

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the sequel to 'Home's not home without Auntie Nat'. Thanks for all of the comments and PMs asking for a Cooper-Nat fic. 
> 
> Feel free to leave any more ideas or things you'd like to see in this series. :)

After the whole Ultron thing is over, and the new Avengers training facility has been build and is in full swing, Cooper begins to realise the true magnitude of his Dad being a superhero.

The thing is, Cooper knows that his dad being Hawkeye in the Avengers is an important job. He’s known since he could talk that Daddy was Hawkeye at work and that he shot arrows at the bad guys and saved the world with Auntie Nat. And Cooper has always been in awe of his dad, always pictured in his mind what his dad looks like at work, fighting alongside the Avengers and keeping the world safe. In his mind, Dad is the hero, and the bad guys don’t stand a chance.

But then one day, while his mom is feeding baby Nate, and while Lila is out talking to the cows through the fence, Cooper finds himself watching TV while he attempts to fold some construction paper in cool ninja stars that he can throw at Lila later. He’s watching some British show about cars where the guys on it race on a track and he thinks that Auntie Nat could out-drive them any day, but then the show finishes, and a news special about the Avengers comes on, and everything changes.

The voice that speaks over the images of the heroes flying through the sky and fighting tooth and nail on the ground isn’t kind. It talks of the damage the Avengers have caused, the billions of tax dollars it is costing to fix the cities. The voiceover speaks at length about Tony Stark, and even goes on to say how the world would be a better place without him in it.

That makes Cooper mad. Tony Stark saves the world.

It’s when the programme begins to show footage of his Auntie Nat in court, that Cooper has to turn off the sound. She’s being an absolute badass, giving an awesome speech that Cooper has seen on TV before and has had memorised since the first day he saw her handing all of those government officials their asses, but the voice over is claiming she is a traitorous criminal. Cooper can’t just sit and listen to that.

He wants to kick the ass of whoever’s voice it is. No one talks bad about his parents.

Cooper sits quietly and watches the various angles of cell phone footage from when Sokovia was flying above the Earth, and the pride he feels for all of these heroes he knows who are risking their lives to save others, suddenly gives way to a morbid dread.

He sees the grainy image of his dad shooting arrows at Ultron’s drones, sees his Auntie Nat shooting bullets with her back pressed against his, and it looks fruitless. They’re outnumbered. It looks like their going to lose the fight.

The footage switches to some of the Hulk tearing through a church, and Cooper has to close his eyes and remind himself that he knows, he _knows_ that the fight was won and that his Dad and aunt returned home safe. Suddenly, his dad being a superhero doesn’t so much fill him with pride, it fills him with dread.

It is at that moment, that Cooper realises that his dad, and even his Auntie Nat, aren’t indestructible. One day, they might lose the fight, there might be a well aimed bullet or a well positioned kick to the head. One day, Dad and Auntie Nat might not come home from saving the world.

…

That night, Cooper lies in bed with Snappy, his plush alligator who he’s had so long he can’t even remember where he got him, and waits for his Dad to come and wish him a good night. He’s tried to tell Mom and Dad that he’s old enough now to put himself to bed, and that he really doesn’t need to be tucked in, but Cooper secretly like that they both insist on goodnight hugs and kisses, regardless of his age.

Snappy is half hidden under the covers where he is tucked under Cooper’s arm, because he feels a little embarrassed to still be attached to a stuffed animal, but he gently strokes the green fur on Snappy’s back affectionately. He smiles and thinks about when he was little and Auntie Nat used to make Snappy attack his Dad, growling and ravaging his Dad’s neck with the plushie.

Cooper feels a pang at the thought of his Auntie Nat. He hasn’t seen her in over a month and a he misses her. He tightens his grip on Snappy.

“Ready for sleep?” He dad asks, poking his head around the door and stepping in fully.

Cooper nods. “I guess.”

His dad sits down on the edge of his bed and smiles. “School tomorrow, Coop.” He says. “One more week and then Summer’s all ours.” He laughs and claps, rubbing his hands together.

Copper smiles. He’s pretty excited for Summer, too. The past month of school’s been pretty harsh, just because his dad being Hawkeye wasn’t so much of a secret anymore. Lots of the parents have been ushering their kids away from him. Not that Cooper really minds. His close friends don’t act any different and their parents don’t seem to care.

Many a night though, after a rough day of teachers staring at him a little too long and of younger kids shying away, Cooper has returned home wanting nothing more than to be with his family. Which is fine, except, there’s always someone missing.

“I miss Auntie Nat.” Cooper says suddenly.

His dad looks as surprised as Cooper feels at the words, but then his expression morphs into one of sympathy and Copper feels like he might cry.

“Me, too.” Dad says, and pats his shoulder. “But she’s doing good things.”

“Saving the world?” Cooper says and has to force a smile with the words he’s heard his parents say to him and his sister for so long.

“Well,” his dad shrugs, “she’s preparing to. Got a lot of kids she needs to whip into shape.” He grins. “Those New Avengers have got a lot to live up to.” He puffs out his chest comically but Cooper can’t find it in himself to laugh.

“If there’s new Avenger, does that mean you’re done now?” He asks, stroking Snappy’s foot under the covers. “You can stay home forever, now?”

Cooper knows that’s not the case by the expression on his dad’s face. Dad smiles at him sadly. “I can’t guarantee that I won’t be leaving again at some point.” He squeezes Cooper’s shoulder. “But we can still talk on the phone, do video calls. It’s better than when I was with SHIELD and I went on missions for months without being able to call.”

“I miss you when you’re away.” Cooper tells him honestly. “But that’s not what I’m worried about.”

His dad frowns a little. “No?”

Cooper looks his father in the eye and sits up further in bed. “If you keep leaving to save the world, one day you might not come home.”

His dad looks pale. “Coop, you know I’ll always try my best to-,”

“I know.” Cooper interrupts, holding up a hand. “I know you’ll do your best to come home, but what if you got shot and you _die_ , Dad.” He can feel the tears starting and gets angry with himself for getting upset over something hypothetical. “Daddy, I don’t want you to die.”

His Dad wraps him up in a hug so tight that Cooper can barely breathe. He kisses his cheeks and rubs Coopers back, rocking him like he does with Nate when he cries. Cooper doesn’t even care that he’s too old for this kind of attention.

After a few minutes, his dad speaks. “Maybe the world can be saved without me and my arrows.”

“Maybe.” Cooper mumbles into his chest. “Or maybe you could teach someone else to be Hawkeye. Then you’re arrows would still be needed.”

The offended look on his father’s face breaks Cooper from his depression and makes him giggle.

“There can only be _one_ Hawkeye.” His dad declares.

Cooper frowns. “Auntie Nat said there’s a girl you guys met who was pretty good with arrows.”

“Who? Kate?” His dad scoffs, and then takes a moment to frown, then shrugs. “Maybe.”

Cooper, now elated with the prospect that his dad _may_ consider not risking his life so often and thrilled with this new game of ‘who can replace the avengers?’, eagerly shifts onto his knees.

“Dad, Dad,” Cooper smiles, “Kate can be you, and Cap can still be Cap because he never gets old.”

His dad nods, but also looks a little pissed at that.

“And Hulk…” Cooper trails off with his dilemma.” I’m not sure there’s anyone who can replace Hulk.”

“Godzilla?” Dad suggests.

“Who?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Cooper continues. “And who could be Auntie Nat?”

His dad sighs and smiles a little. “I’m not sure we could ever find someone to replace Nat, even if she scoured the whole of space.” He chuckles a little. “And anyway, the chance of Nat settling down on the farm and giving up saving the world,” He takes a deep breath, “well, that’s unlikely.”

“What do you mean?” He asks.

“Your Auntie Nat, well, you know what she’s like for staying in one place for a long time.” His dad rubs his hand on his jeans. “She likes to be working.”

“But she can work here.”

“She can.” His dad agrees. “But it’s not quite the type of work I meant.”

The game isn’t fun anymore. Cooper curls back under the covers and pulls Snappy to his chest, not even caring that his dad is there to see him hugging the stuffed animal. He turns on his side to face the window rather than his father.

“Coop?” His dad asks. “What’s up?”

He swallows thickly and tries not to cry. “Auntie Nat won’t ever stop saving the world, will she?” He can feel his dad climb over his bed to sit on the floor by is face.

“She’s saving lives, Cooper.” He says, brushing hair out of his face. “It’s a good thing.”

Cooper can’t help it when the tears fall. “Not if she dies.”

“Coop-,”

“Dad, if she never stops working, then eventually she’ll go out on a mission and she won’t come back.” His breath hitches. “Especially if you’re not there to take care of her.”

Unexpectedly, his Dad laughs. “Take care of _her_? Dude, she’s the one taking care of _me_ out there.”

Cooper just frowns. That doesn’t really make him feel any better. He’s seen them fight on the TV, back to back, watching each other’s six the entire time. They need each other.

“You can’t leave her.” Cooper says with an authority he didn’t know he had. “Dad, you and Auntie Nat are a team. You need her and she needs you. Either both of you need to be saving the world, or neither of you. That’s just how it has to work.”

His dad raises his eyebrows. “I thought you were worried I’d get hurt saving the world.”

“That was before I remembered that you always have Auntie Nat protecting you.”

His dad smiles and runs his fingers through Cooper’s hair. It’s a little annoying, not comforting like it might have been a few years ago, but Cooper doesn’t complain.

“Listen, Coop.” His dad says. “When your job is kicking the butts of bad guys, and saving people from flying cities, and crazy robots and,” he gestures wildly, “ _freaking Gods_ , well, it’s gonna be dicey. I could get hurt.

“But here’s the thing,” His dad continues, “I do it, because I want to make the world a better place for you to grow up in. I want a world that is safe for you and Lila and Nate. I do what I do for you, and well, your mom.”

“And for Auntie Nat?” Cooper asks, because he knows his dad loves her just as much as he loves his mom.

His dad twists his face a little. “Natasha’s a little different. She’s my partner in crime. Or, partner in _fighting_ crime. We both save the world for you and your brother and sister, _and_ for your mom.”

“Because you love us?” Cooper explains.

“Because we love you.” His dad kisses his head. “But if you really wanted me to stay home, stay out of danger, I would.” He looks him in the eye. “I’d do anything for you.”

Cooper bites his lip and brings Snappy up to his nose. “Anything?”

“Absolutely anything.”

“Okay, then.” Cooper puts Snappy behind him on his pillow. “I want you to go save the world with Auntie Nat. Be partners in fighting crime.”

His dad smiles real big, showing lots of teeth. “I think I can do that.”

“And try to be safe.” He orders.

His dad kisses him again. “I will certainly do that, too.”

…

Cooper can tell just from the way his mom is being extra nice to him in the morning, that his dad has told her about their conversation last night. He doesn’t really mind, too much, partly because she’s his mother and she deserves to know what he’s having miniature freak-outs about, but mostly because when he opens his lunch at school he finds three slices of left over pizza instead of his usual ham sandwich.

School is fine, as normal. He plays soccer with the kids from his class who don’t seem to care who his dad is as long as he can still kick the ball into the goal, and he spends most of him time in class just doing crosswords and colouring in a world map because his teacher has apparently given up on lesson plans with it being so close to summer.

The only weird thing that happens, is that just a little after lunch, a few hours before school is meant to get out, the kid who works afternoons in the school office appears at his classroom door with Lila and asks for him to grab his stuff and follow him out.

Cooper does, saying a quick goodbye to his friends and shrugging at their hurried questions before he jogs down the corridor to catch up with Lila and the office kid.

“What’s going on?” He asks Lila, and his sister, helpful as ever, shrugs her shoulders and skips a little ahead of him.

She’s not worried at all, Cooper can tell, but she probably doesn’t remember being taken out of school early by their mom and having her sit them down at the kitchen table to tell them Daddy got hurt at work and wouldn’t be coming home for a while. Cooper still wasn’t quite sure what Loki had done to his father, but it had given Dad nightmares and kept him away from the house for another nine weeks.

When they reach the office, Cooper relaxes significantly when it’s their father who stands by the door waiting for them.

Lila throws herself at him, shouting, “Daddy!”, but Cooper’s still a little wired.

“What are you doing here?” He snaps, then frowns at his own ferocity. “Sorry.” He apologises, following his dad and Lila out into the school parking lot. “I meant, ‘what are you doing here’ in a nicer way.”

His dad smiles at him and ruffles his hair. Cooper flattens it back down again.

“Your mom and I talked.” His dad says, looking between him and Lila with a grin. “And we decided that missing the last week of school won’t kill ya, so we’re taking an early vacation.”

Lila ‘Yay’s’ as she climbs into her car seat and immediately begins twittering on about how excited she is and how jealous her friends will be, Cooper just stares at his dad questioningly.

“But, why?” Cooper asks. “Mom never lets us miss school. Even the last week.”

His dad puts his hands on his shoulders and leans down to his level. Cooper can see the scar on the side of his face, just above his eye where his dad had got one of the horses hooves to the head when he got too close trying to break it. It had been kind of scary to see when it had happened because there had been a lot of blood, but Cooper had been sitting in his Auntie Nat’s arms at the time, balanced on her hip because he was only three or four, and she had been laughing hysterically so Cooper knew not to be worried. All of the times his dad had been shot at in his life, Auntie Nat had said, and it was a feisty mare that would scar his face.

“After our talk last night,” his dad says, pulling Cooper from his reflections, “I thought that maybe you’d like to take a trip?”

Cooper regards his father with a quiet respect, waiting for him to explain any more before giving him any reaction. His dad seems to understand because he continues quickly.

“I talked to Nat today.” He says with a smile. “Told her you miss her.”

Cooper smiles at that, glad his dad has passed on the message.

His dad pats his shoulder. “She misses you, too, kid. And I asked her if she could take some time off, come home for a little while,”

Cooper tries not to get excited at the prospect of his aunt returning home for the fist time in over a month, but he can’t help it and he thinks it must show in his face because his dad smiles a little wider.

“ _But_ ,” his dad continues, and Cooper’s heart sinks, “they’re super busy. And she asked Steve, but she can’t get a clump of days off of work to come down.”

Cooper deflates a little more. Lila is oblivious, now kicking her legs against the inside of the car door and singing the theme song from one of her favourite shows.

“But I miss her, Dad.” Cooper whines, and he knows he’s pouting.

“I know you do, buddy, and that’s why we’re gonna go up to New York and see her and the rest of the team.” His dad is smiling real big but Cooper barely sees it because he flings himself into his arms and hugs his as tight as he can around the neck.

“We’re going to the training place?” He asks, words a little muffled where his mouth is smushed against his father’s shoulder. “We get to see Auntie Nat and see her at work?”

“Yeah.” His dad laughs and pats him on the back. “I take it you approve.”

Cooper pulls back. His cheeks are beginning to ache from grinning so much. “This is the best surprise ever.” He says. ”Will there be planes there? And can I see Auntie Nat shoot some stuff? I _love_ watching Auntie Nat shoot stuff.”

His dad is laughing pretty hard. He stands up and gives Cooper a quick side hug. “Get in the car. We’ll discuss terms when we get home and Mom can give some input.”

Cooper climbs into the front passenger seat and turns to his sister. “We’re going to see Auntie Nat, Li. We’re going to New York.”

Her face lights up and she squeals so loudly that Cooper actually recoils a little.

“Auntie Nat! Auntie Nat!” Lila starts chanting. “Auntie Nat! Auntie Nat!”

“Dad?” Cooper turns to his dad as they pull away.

“Yeah, dude?”

“I can’t wait for our family to be all together again.”

His dad smiles and nods. “Me neither, kid.”

Lila stops chanting long enough to lean forward in her seat. “Me either.”

…

When Cooper’s parents explain to him and Lila that their dad will be taking Cooper up to New York a few days earlier than Lila, Nate and their Mom will be travelling up, Cooper laughs with glee and punches the air. Lila throws a fit and gets put in time out.

His sister gets over it by the time Cooper and his dad leave a few hours later. Mom has promised that she and Lila can bake and paint and watch all the princess movies that Cooper likes to complain all the way through, and this promise appeals to Lila enough that Cooper even gets a genuine hug and kiss goodbye.

His Mom gives him a hug and kiss, too, and hands him his backpack. He’s not sure what’s in there because his mom is amazing and packed his suitcase and backpack for him, but it’s got a bottle of sugary soda he’s usually not allowed, tucked into the side of the bag.

“You tell your Auntie Nat that we miss having her at home, okay?” She says to him.

Cooper nods. “I’ll tell her.”

His mom smiles. “Good boy. And,” she leans down, Nate in her arms, and kisses him on both cheeks and his forehead, “give her those from me.”

“Because you miss her?” Cooper asks with a little smile. He usually wipes the kisses from his face but he resists, knowing they were to be passed on to Auntie Nat.

“Yeah.” His mom looks a little sad for a second, then she stands up straight, bounces Nate a little, and it’s gone. “I miss her a lot.”

Cooper takes baby Nate from his mom so that she can say goodbye to his dad. He’s glad he has his little brother to entertain him for a few minutes because the sight of his parents kissing like people do in the movies makes him want to puke.

They leave around the same time Cooper would usually be getting out of school, and his dad doesn’t stop driving until it’s past Cooper’s usual bedtime, but tonight it’s their dinner time because that’s how it is on road trips. At least, that’s what Dad tells him when they’re eating ice cream sundaes for dessert at ten thirty at night.

Cooper falls asleep not long after they leave the diner they ate dinner at, and doesn’t wake up until his dad is shaking him awake in the morning. It’s light out, but the sun hasn’t completely risen yet, and Cooper feels all stiff and achy when he stretches in his seat.

His dad smiles from the drivers seat and reaches over to ruffle his hair. “We’re here, buddy.” He says, and nods out the window towards the coolest building that Cooper has ever seen in his entire life.

“ _That’s_ where Auntie Nat works?” He asks in awe. Cooper unbuckles his seatbelt and jumps out of the car to get a better view of the group of trainees jogging around the perimeter. “Yeah. I can totally see her working here.”

Steve meets them at the main entrance and carries Cooper’s bags for him. He’s happy to see Cap, he honestly is, and Cooper does his best not to interrupt his dad and Cap’s conversation as they walk to the rooms they’ll be staying in, but when Steve pauses to press the button in the elevator, Cooper just can’t help himself.

“Is my Auntie Nat here?” He asks, tugging on Cap’s elbow.

Cap looks down at him and Cooper suddenly remembers how _huge_ the guy is, and how even in a t-shirt and jeans he’s still a little intimidating.

Cooper shrinks back against his dad a little. “Is she here?” He asks again, trying to be brave. “Captain America, Sir?”

Cap glances at Cooper’s dad with a big smile and them looks back to him. His smile is nice and he doesn’t seem to be mad or anything, so Cooper’s not really scared anymore.

“She’s here.” Cap says, still smiling. “Nat’s been pretty excited that you’re coming.”

The elevator lurches a little as they arrive at their floor.

“She is?” Cooper asks, following Cap out into a wide hall.

“Course she is.” Cap grins. “She misses you all when she’s here.”

His dad laughs behind him. “Nice to know Nat’s missing us as much as we’ve been missing her.” He puts a hand on Cooper’s shoulder.

They walk a little way down the hall and turn a corner into a large common area with couches and arm chairs and the biggest TV Cooper has even seem in his whole life. But the gigantic screen and the prospect of playing Xbox _on_ that massive screen, barely enters his consciousness, because Cooper is so focused on the woman standing in the middle of the room.

“Auntie Nat!” He calls, and runs at her so fast that he almost trips over his own feet.

She catches him in her arms and hugs him tightly, pressing and kiss into his hair and briefly lifting him of the ground.

“Oh, malysh.” His Auntie Nat says into his hair. “Long time, no see.”

Cooper nods and holds her closer when he thinks he Auntie Nat is about to let go. He’s missed her so much more than he even realised, so much so that he doesn’t even protest the nickname he pretends to hate because it means ‘baby boy’. When she murmurs ‘malysh’ again, Cooper feels like he wants to be a baby forever if it means she’ll never leave him again.

After a few minutes of hugging, Cooper pulls back from his aunt because he can feel his dad standing behind him, waiting patiently for his turn. As soon as he does, his dad is squeezing the life out Auntie Nat, making her laugh loudly and pretend like she can’t breathe.

“I’ve only been away a month.” She grins when his dad lets her go.

“It’s been more than a month.” His dad says and wraps an arm around her shoulders, kissing her head. “I missed you.”

She smiles and reaches up on her toes to kiss his jaw. His dad leans down and kisses her properly, and even though it’s gross, Cooper still smiles a little.

“I missed you, too.” Auntie Nat says it quietly, and without teasing.

Captain America’s ears have gone red and he mutters something about ‘training’ and ‘schedule’ and then awkwardly leaves the way Cooper and his dad had entered. Cooper follows his exit and them looks over to his aunt questioningly. She smirks and shakes her head.

“Steve’s not big on public displays of affection.” She looks up to his dad. “Plus I don’t think he really gets _this._ ” With the last word she gestures between herself and his dad and then to Copper.

His dad smiles fondly. “He’s pretty old fashioned.”

“Well,” Cooper says, “he _is_ like ninety-five.”

“Ninety-six.” Auntie Nat corrects. “Actually, it’s his birthday soon.” She turns to his dad. “Steve’s birthday is on the fourth of July.”

“You’re joking.”

She smirks. ”I’m not.”

His dad shakes his head. “That is _un_ believable.”

Auntie Nat and Dad have still got their arms around each other and Cooper decides he’s had enough of not being in on the hugs, and steps closer to his aunt, pulling her arm around his shoulders. He tries to remember what it was like when he was small enough for her to carry around in her arms. Now he’s past her shoulder and she barely has to bend down to kiss his head.

“Did you miss me, Auntie Nat?” He asks her, even though he’s pretty sure he knows the answer.

She lets go of his father and wraps both arms around Cooper again. “Of course, I did. I don’t like being away for too long, every time I come home you get taller.”

“I missed you a lot, too.” He tells her, resting his head against her shoulder. She smells like she always does, which is weird because she’s been away from home for a while, but it’s comforting nonetheless. “Oh.” Cooper says, pulling back and smiling. “I forgot, Mom sent you something.”

His Auntie Nat frowns a little in confusion.

Cooper stands on his toes so he can reach, and presses kisses to her cheeks and forehead, just like his mom had done to him the day before. “She says to tell you we miss having you at home.”

Auntie Nat hugs him again, even tighter, and smiles against his cheek. “I miss being home, too.”

They eat breakfast together, him his dad and Auntie Nat, but then his dad goes off to bed for a nap because he drove all through the night, leaving Cooper and his aunt to hang out together. He likes it a lot because even at home, Cooper and Auntie Nat really don’t get as much one on one time as he’d like. Lila is his sister and he loves her to death, but she can be annoying and a little intrusive, taking over much of his aunt’s attention.

Cooper and Nat are playing on the obstacle course in the grounds of the training facility when she brings it up. Auntie Nat is already sitting on top of the climbing wall, legs dangling over the side as Cooper clambers up next to her. She helps him up and he shuffles sideways until he’s as close to her he can get without sitting in her lap.

“Your dad told me you guys had a little talk about our jobs a couple of days ago.” She says it casually, but Cooper knows how smart she is, and is aware that conversations like this tend to have been carefully calculated.

“Yeah.” He says, looking out over the view of the land. It goes on for what seems like forever. He can see Steve shouting orders at a group of recruits on the tarmac. “I get worried you’re going to,” he pauses and chooses softer words than the ones he’d used with his dad, “get hurt.” He decides on.

“Die. You mean?” Auntie Nat cuts to the chase and Cooper nods. “It’s a possibility.” She says honestly, and despite the implications, Cooper welcomes her lack of filter with him. She looks at him seriously. “I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, Cooper. Saving the world is dangerous. There’s a real possibility that your dad and I might actually die doing it one day.”

Even though he appreciates her honestly, Cooper feels his face crumpling and he begins to cry.

“Come here, malysh.” Auntie Nat says and wraps her arms around him. She’s strong and warm and Cooper can’t imagine anything big enough to take her down. “I know it’s scary,” she says, “and I know it hurts to think about, but I don’t want you to ignore it and pretend it will never happen. That’s not how the world works.”

Cooper sniffs. He’s sure he’s getting snot on her shirt but she doesn’t seem to care. “I wish that was how the world works.”

She sighs. “Don’t we all?” Auntie Nat rocks him a little. “Do you know how your dad and I met?” She asks seemingly out of the blue, catching Cooper off guard.

He looks up at her through bleary eyes and shakes his head. It seems odd that he doesn’t know, but really, he’s just never thought about it. In Cooper’s mind, Auntie Nat has just always been there. Cooper has a mom, and a dad, and an Auntie Nat, and that’s just how it is. He loves his Auntie Nat just as much as he loves his mom and dad, in the same way he’s sure his mom and dad love her just as much as they love each other.

“You know how your dad and I go to work, and our job is to take down the bad guys?” His Auntie Nat doesn’t bother to use the line his mom always uses which is that his dad and aunt ‘stop the bad guys’. Auntie Nat knows he isn’t stupid, and she’s apparently well aware that Cooper has figured out that they ‘stop’ lots of the bad guys by killing them.

It’s something that Cooper thinks he should maybe feel weird about, but absolutely doesn’t.

“I know you kill them.” He says to her. “But it’s okay, ‘cause they’re bad, and you’re good.” It sounds juvenile coming out of his mouth, but that’s how Cooper sees it. It’s black and white. Auntie Nat and Dad are good, and the bad guys are bad. That’s all there is to it.

Auntie Nat gently rubs his cheek where another stray tear falls, even though he’s almost stopped crying. “The thing is,” she says a little unsurely, which is an odd word to describe her, “I wasn’t always the on the good side.”

She looks at Cooper like she expects him to recoil, so instead he does the opposite and squeezes her around the waist. “I know.” He says, and true surprise flashes across her face.

The thing is, Cooper isn’t stupid, and Cooper has always been the quieter one between him and Lila. Even before she was born, he was happy to simply sit and play on his own while the adults chatted amongst themselves. And the thing about adults is, that they often forget that children are listening.

Cooper has always been aware that his aunt’s native country is Russia. She often speaks in Russian, whether to herself or his dad, and sometimes she gives him and Lila mini lessons in the language, but beyond that, Cooper’s never really thought much about her past. He had, for a long time, kind of assumed that Auntie Nat had been in Russia, and then Auntie Nat had been on the farm with them. He had never considered an in between.

But then one afternoon, when Lila was playing outside, and Cooper was reading quietly in the living room, he had overheard his mom and dad talking, and he’d heard his dad say “ _those bastards who fucked with her”._

Dad swearing wasn’t really anything new, but when Mom had replied, _“I’d kill the sons of bitches if I could”,_ Cooper had been more than intrigued. Still pretending to read, he had shuffled closer to the door and listened to the rest of the conversation where he had learned that Auntie Nat had been a ‘contractor’ and had been ‘forced into the wrong side’.

It was vague, and all Cooper had on the topic, but it was enough to give him the picture. Auntie Nat hadn’t always been good, but then, when he thought about it, neither had his dad. Once over he had been a criminal, he’d told Cooper that himself, so he just hadn’t dwelled on it much.

“It doesn’t matter if you used to be bad,” Cooper says, “because now you’re good. _That’s_ what matters.”

“It is.” His Auntie Nat says. “But I was _really_ bad. I was doing terrible things for terrible people.” Her face goes dark. “I was the best at it, too.”

Cooper’s morbid curiosity gets the better of him. “What kind of bad things?”

She shakes her head. “You don’t need to know.” And if Auntie Nat doesn’t want to tell him, them Cooper knows it _must_ be bad. “But things that made me infamous. And SHIELD wanted to stop me. I was the bad guy, Coop.”

He looks up at her. “They sent a good guy after you?”

She smiles a little and kisses his temple. “Good guess. Yeah. They sent a good guy after me, and he was supposed to track me down and,” she pauses and swallows, “put me down.”

Cooper gasps. “Kill you?”

“I was the bad guy, remember?” Auntie Nat says, and Cooper can’t imagine how this woman in front of him could even have been anything other than the superhero he adores today. “But anyway, SHIELD sent someone to take me down, and he tracked me, and he cornered me, and then…”

“What?” Cooper breathes, enthralled.

Auntie Nat turns to him, and leans down a little so their faced are level. She grins. “And then, your dad aimed an arrow at my head and offered me a job.”

Cooper watches her face carefully for any indication that she might be playing him, but it’s totally sincere. “My dad was the good guy?” He asks, and Auntie Nat nods. “He was gonna kill you?”

“Yes.” She says then backtracks when she sees the horror on his face. “I mean, no! No. Sort of.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve got to remember, Coop, that this was before you mom and dad and I even knew each other. You dad was sent to kill me, but he made a different call. He took me into SHIELD, and then long story, short, I became a good guy.” She nudges his shoulder. “That’s how your dad and I met.”

He blows out a breath. “That’s awesome.”

Auntie Nat laughs. “Yeah. It is.” She stretches her legs out in front of her and leans back on both hands. “Point is, Coop, that I owe your dad. I owe him big time.”

She looks kind of cool sitting like she is, so Cooper copies and mirrors her posture. “Owe him?”

“For not taking my life. For _giving_ me one.” Auntie Nat puts her hand over his. “For giving me a family. I’ll always owe him for that. And I’ll always be trying to repay him for that.” She looks seriously at him. “When your dad and I are out in the field, fighting, I will _always_ be fighting with the intention to get your dad home safe.”

He cocks his head at her. “What about the bad guys? And saving the world?”

“The world wouldn’t be worth saving if I didn’t do my very best to get your dad home to you.”

Something about the way she says it, makes Cooper want to hug his Auntie Nat and never let go. He has absolutely _no_ doubt that she would do her best to keep his dad safe, and that makes Cooper feel much more comfortable about his dad being a superhero.

“Auntie Nat?” Cooper says.

“Mm?”

“You’d do your best to bring _yourself_ home safe, too, right?”

She touches his cheek. “Yeah.”

“You promise?” Cooper asks, because it’s suddenly the most important question in his universe. “You _promise_ you do your best to come home safe?”

“I promise.” She says. “I have so much to come home to. I wouldn’t want to miss any of that.”

…

They spend the rest of the day looking around the training institute and playing with all of the equipment. Cooper gets to go inside some of the new planes, and he makes Auntie Nat promise to teach him to fly them when he’s old enough.

At some point his dad joins them and they have a rare day of just Cooper, Dad, and Auntie Nat. It’s nice. Cooper thinks it’s maybe the best day he’s had since before the battle of New York.

When it’s bedtime, Cooper doesn’t argue to stay up even though Captain America and the Falcon are sitting in the common room playing Mario Kart on the giant TV and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened in the history of forever.

Despite the Mario Kart tournament among the Avengers, when his dad says it’s time for bed, Cooper is so tired that he just agrees. He’s a little reluctant to get up from the comfy couch, but then Auntie Nat says she’ll tuck him in and even though he’s _obviously_ too old to be tucked in, Cooper wants nothing more than that exact thing.

He gets ready for bed, putting on his pyjamas and brushing his teeth, and by the time he gets beck into the bedroom from the adjoined bathroom, Auntie Nat is waiting for him.

“Did you wash your face?” She asks.

“…yes.” Cooper says.

Auntie Nat rolls her eyes and points him back to the bathroom. “Face. Washed. Now.”

He sighs but goes and does it anyway, even if it is in super-quick time, then launches himself onto the bed, making his aunt bounce up where she is sitting on the edge.

“Trying to bounce me to death?” She laughs, ticking his side.

Cooper laughs and bats at her hands. She stops tickling him and instead picks up his backpack from the floor.

“You bring any books with you?” She asks, hand on the zip of the bag, “I know _you’re_ far too old for bedtime stories but I’m not.”

“I’m not sure.” Cooper grins. “I didn’t pack. Mom did.”

“Good old Mom.” She frowns. “Not ‘old’. Never ‘old’. Young and beautiful and-” Auntie Nat turns to Cooper, “don’t tell her I said she was old.”

Cooper chuckles. “I won’t. I’ll just tell her you said she was young and beautiful.”

She kisses his cheek. “Good boy.”

Auntie Nat opens his backpack and before she can even reach inside, Snappy the alligator pops out of the overstuffed bag. She pulls him out and hugs him to her chest.

“No books, but look who I found.” She grins.

“Auntie Nat…” Cooper groans.

“I thought you and Snappy had called it quits.” She smirks at him. “Thought you were too old.”

“I _am._ ” Cooper says defiantly. “Mom packed the bag, remember?”

“Hm.” She hums and strokes her hand down Snappy’s back. “So you won’t mind if I take him so I have someone to cuddle at night?”

Cooper knows she’s joking, but even so, he feels a little tug in his chest at the prospect of giving Snappy away for good.

“But”, he says, “you’ve got Dad to cuddle. And at home you have Dad _and_ Mom for cuddles.”

Auntie Nat makes Snappy walk over their arms and snuggle into his chest. “Yeah. You’re right.” She smiles. “And your Mom and Dad and pretty good at cuddles.”

Cooper climbs under the covers of the bed, holding up one corner so Auntie Nat can get in with him. She lies down and Cooper tucks himself into her side like he used to when he was very small, and pillows his head on her chest.

“I’m good at cuddles, too.” Cooper says.

“You are.” Auntie Nat says. “So we don’t have books for a story, but I’m pretty awesome. I can probably come up with one.”

Cooper looks up at her. “All your stories are real things that have happened, except you always change the bad guys to dragons and the good guys to ninjas.”

She frowns. “You liked them well enough when you were five.”

“I’m not _five_ anymore.” Cooper smiles. “How about _I_ tell _you_ a story?”

Auntie Nat settles further into the bed and hugs him closer. “Okay, I’m ready. Tell me a bedtime story.”

Cooper puts Snappy in her hand because it seems like if he’s the one telling her a story, that she should at least get to hug Snappy, too. He doesn’t really have a story to tell off the top of his head, but the words just seem to come to him and he uses his aunt’s story formula.

“Once upon a time, there was a Mom, and a Dad, and a little boy.”

“Great start.” She says.

“And on this one day, the Dad left to go to work.” Cooper smiles. “He was a ninja, and he was going to slay a dragon that was terrorising a mythical land called Russia.”

Auntie Nat snorts and Cooper can feel her chest moving under his cheek where she’s laughing.

He continues, trying his best not to join in with the laughter. “So _anyways,_ ” he says, nudging her side, “the dragon was a mean dragon who did bad things. She only did the bad things, though, because people told her to, and she couldn’t say no.”

“Cooper…”

“So the ninja Dad goes to slay her, except when he gets there, he sees that the dragon isn’t _really_ a dragon, she’s a ninja like him.”

Auntie Nat runs her fingers through his hair. “She is?”

“Yeah.” Cooper says. “Only, she forgot, because she’s been pretending to be a dragon for so long. And the ninja Dad brings her home to the Mom and the little boy, and the dragon stops being a dragon, and starts being a-,”

“Ninja?” She guesses, and Cooper shakes his head.

“No.” He touches her cheek. “The dragon was always a ninja, but she started being a mommy.”

Auntie Nat is quiet. She doesn’t say anything, and there’s a little crease of a frown in the skin in between her eyebrows. Cooper leans up so he can kiss it away.

“The little boy,” Cooper says, “he already had a mom, so the dragon-ninja became his aunt instead.”

“Is that so?” Auntie Nat’s voice wavers.

“Yes. And the little boy called her his aunt, but she was really just another mom for him.” Cooper smiles. “He loved her like a mom.”

She holds him tightly. “Well, I know that the dragon-ninja loved the little boy like a son.”

Cooper grins. “It was a super weird family.” He continues. “And most people didn’t understand how there could be three parents, but that didn’t matter because it was the best family in the world.”

“It was.”

“And then, after a while,” Cooper says, “the Mom had two more kids, and even though they were sort of cool, neither of them could ever compare to how amazing the little boy was. ‘Wow’ people would say, ‘isn’t that little boy the most perfect child you’ve ever seen in your life? He’s awesome. I bet he can skateboard real good.’” He smirks. “That’s what people would say.”

Auntie Nat rolls her eyes. “Sure.” She flicks his nose. “He was _perfect_.” She says sarcastically.

“He _was_ perfect.”

“And he never, _ever_ had to be rescued out of the bathroom window by his aunt because he got locked in.”

Cooper glares at her for good measure, even though he’s not really mad. “That was _one_ time.”

She cocks an eyebrow at him.

He huffs. “Fine. _Two_ times.”

She laughs. “I love you, Coop. I love you and your sister, and your brother very much.”

“I love you, too, Auntie Nat.” Cooper snuggles further into her embrace. “Even though you’re Auntie Nat, you’re still my mama.”

She kisses him. “I’ve got your mom and dad, and three beautiful children to come home to. I’m always going to do my best to come home safe with your dad.”

“Good.” Cooper says. “’Cause you’re much better at cuddling than Snappy.”

**Author's Note:**

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